In an exclusive interview with Brian Williams airing tonight at 10pm/9c on NBC’s “Rock Center,” Apple CEO Tim Cook announced one of the existing Mac lines will be manufactured exclusively in the United States next year. Mac fans will have to wait to see which Mac line it will be because Apple, widely known for its secrecy, left it vague. Cook's announcement may or may not confirm recent rumors in the blogosphere sparked by iMacs inscribed in the back with “Assembled in USA.”

“We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” Cook told Williams. It was Cook’s first interview since taking over from his visionary former boss, Steve Jobs, who resigned due to health reasons in August 2011. Jobs died on October 5, 2011, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The announcement could be good news for a country that has been struggling with an unemployment rate of around 8 percent for some time and has been bleeding good-paying factory jobs to lower-wage nations such as China.

Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, said he believes it’s important to bring more jobs to the United States. Apple would not reveal where exactly the Macs will be manufactured.

11. All explained here --->

27. I'm far from an Apple fan, but I have to disagree with that.

There's a lot of speculation today that Apple might move the production back into their Elk Grove California plant, because it's the only plant they still own, and because it's still used as a distribution center, it's already in their supply chain and won't require a huge investment to integrate.

I used to know several people who worked in the Elk Grove plant before they shut it down, and most of them had assembly line jobs. It may not have been the most glamorous work, but it paid well, had good benefits, and the working environment was great. They were all moved to the distribution side when manufacturing shut down, and all quit because warehouse work was much crappier than the assembly work they had previously been doing.

This is a good move on Apple's part, and the jobs will be welcome. It will help a LOT of people.

2. Can't win for losing

As a country we have outsourced board manufacturing or automated it. What are your plans for fixing it? At least their help desk is American and one of the reason why people buy Apple. Just keep supporting Samsung. That's the solution.
There is a deeper issue here. Companies no longer do all phases of the manufacturing process. We have outsourced everything that is not our key business. This is the result of short sighted top business schools like Harvard. So inevitably the way our businesses are set up about all you can do is assembly.

8. "there is a deeper issue here" - and that is how Apple treats workers overseas via its contractors

Apple pays very little to its contractors overseas and thus we have Foxconn etc. squeezing its workers and the environment, requiring 12 hr. days 6 days/wk; then there are fires breaking out in workers' dorms and workplaces due to things like aluminum dust igniting, which could be easily fixed via ventilation, people dying from these accidents, environmental protection and worker safety ignored.

Apple should move operations back and if they are keeping contractors overseas, pay them properly and lay down worker safety and environmental rules or else they'll be off the job.

25. Make good money 5 dollars a day, make any more I might move away......

28. Err...what does Samsung have to do with this?

Apple is moving some MAC production to the U.S., not phones. Samsung doesn't even build computers.

Most computer companies are American, though all of them ALSO manufacture in China like Apple does. It will be interesting to see if HP, Dell, or IBM follow suit and pull any of their consumer or server production back to U.S. shores. You can bet they're watching closely to see how it impacts Apples margins.

35. Lol.

Yeah, that suprised me. After working in technology for 20 years, I've never seen or heard of one before. After looking up some marketshare statistics, I found out why. Globally, the top 12 computer manufacturers are Acer, Apple, Asus, ChiliGreen, Dell, Fujitsu/Siemens, Gericon, HP, Lenovo/IBM, Maxdata, Medion, Sony, and Toshiba. Together, those 12 companies control more than 90% of the global computer market. There are, in addition to that, HUNDREDS of smaller computer manufacturers. They're usually considered "also-rans", and don't have much of an impact in the industry. Samsung is solidly in that group.

14. Good on them

Happy to see Apple playing a leadership role in bringing jobs back to the US. Apple has been way ahead of the curve on so many things so I hope this foreshadows a movement by other manufacturers doing the same.

17. Apple's vastly overrated, but if this is real I will buy them.

After watching their earlier labor scandals, I will be on guard for a PR stunt where the "Assembled in the USA" tag means an American symbolically tightened the case screws but I cautiously congratulate Mr. Cook on this decision and for showing some glimmers of responsible corporate governance. It's a welcome change. If this is a substantial move (~50% US based effort in the manufacturing) I will wholeheartedly support them.

From the article, I still find the "it's the skills" excuse grates way too much -- it's a flat out lie told by cheap labor addicts who pocket the ~50 bucks a unit they save to go overseas. I've toured some of our US based defence electronics assembly lines and find that ordinary Americans seem to be able to work there JUST FINE. They just don't do it for $3K/year.

38. You made the idoitc statement prove me wrong. I know the industry.

39. what the heck... here you go

At Apple, his first assignment was Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations. According to CNN, he had a "mandate to clean up the atrocious state of Apple's manufacturing, distribution, and supply apparatus". Cook is credited with pulling Apple out of manufacturing by closing factories and warehouses around the world. This helped the company reduce inventory levels and streamline its supply chain to match the efficiency of Dell Inc., dramatically increasing margins. These initiatives have proven key to Apple's success of being to unveil next-generation products, keeping them secret until they are ready for distribution to retail, forecasting demand and executing against that forecast. Cook has been quoted as saying "You kind of want to manage it like you're in the dairy business. If it gets past its freshness date, you have a problem".

23. "assembled", not "Made in USA", unfortunately. To do that,

31. stupid question here. Why don't we just charge tariffs on all imports? I lived in Brasil

for 18 years. They had a 200% import tax on all imports at the time. That way things were made in Brasil.
It was easier to make things at home in your own country. Maybe even cheaper, because of the import tax.
It is the exact oIt works. What on earth is wrong with protectionism? If you really really want an imported item, you pay the tax.
This story that "we have a global economy" has been accepted by all. We don't have to accept these terms of the global economy. . We can have laws that any factory overseas paying less than our minimum wage, must pay the difference in taxes, for example. Walmart should be paying the cost in health care their low wages create, for example. These things could be done.

36. HP PCs Manufactured in the USA

For as long as we've been in the PC business, HP has built PCs in the US. HP workstations and commercial desktop PCs are manufactured in Indianapolis, and HP servers are manufactured in Houston. These manufacturing facilities employ hundreds of people and produce billions of dollars’ worth of products.

Key facts:
•36% of Business Desktop PCs sold in the US are made in the US
•100% of the Workstation PCs sold in the US are made in the US
•HP (and Compaq) have been making PCs continuously in the US since the inception
•HP will make 2.9 million PCs in the US this year

“HP PCs have been assembled in the US since the beginning,” said Tony Prophet, senior vice president of operations for HP’s Printing and Personal Systems group. “For example, every HP desktop workstation PC sold in the US is assembled in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2012, we expect to assemble 2.9 million PC units in the United States.”